Lombard makes the right decision as he makes Irish team for Paris
It was a huge run by the 27-year-old Leevale runner who had faced something of a dilemma all week. After running 13:39.54 for 5,000m two weeks earlier, he would have been one of the star attractions at the BUPA Ireland Cork City Sports on Saturday.
"I obviously wanted to compete before the home crowd at The Mardyke and it was a difficult decision for me to have to make," he admitted. "I eventually opted for Watford and thankfully I made the right decision.
The race in Watford was won by Fabian Joseph (Tanzania) in 27:32.81 from Francis Kipkoech-Bowen (Kenya), 27:45.20 and British international Karl Keska (Birchfield Harriers), 27:56.37.
In a field of 21, Cathal Lombard finished clear of such notables as the American pair of Mike Donnelly and Weldon Johnson.
"It qualifies me for the world championships unless somebody comes out of the woodwork and runs a B standard. But now I can sit down and work out a campaign that will get me to Paris in the best possible shape," he said.
"Right now I am in flying form. This is by far my best season ever, but then I have never been able to concentrate on a track season before. I have always come out of the cross-country with an injury or an illness and then there were always exams or something like that."
Last year, his cross-country season was punctuated by illness and a troublesome back injury. He was forced to miss the European championships in December and from there on he had problems.
"At the beginning of June I ran 13:58 for 5,000m and then, on June 14 at Eton I ran 13:39.54. I knew I was in pretty good shape. The pacemaker in the race was too slow for the time I had planned.
"They had set pretty stiff standards for the world championships to limit the numbers and now I am told the race will be run as a straight final on August 24 so I will be working towards that.
"More immediately, I am keeping my options open. I will sit down over the next couple of days and decide. This has been the first time I have been able to carry over my winter form into the summer and build on it, and, in terms of consistency, it is paying dividends.
"I will be doing a 5,000m at the Grand Prix meeting in Belgium on August 2 and I have yet to decide what event I will run at the national championships later in the month."
National junior champion Mark Christie was in action in Watford. The Mullingar athlete, looking for a qualifying standard for the European junior championships, finished 10th in the B 1,500m in 3:49.10 before returning to Tullamore on Sunday for the national junior and U23 championship. He lost to Richard Corcoran (Raheny Shamrock AC) in a flying finish to the 1,500m, a defeat that probably cost him a place in the Irish team.
Ciaran O'Connell (Glaslough Harriers) put the disappointment of Cork City Sports behind him with a 400m/800m double which was a repeat of his last visit to the Tullamore Harriers Track where he won both of those titles at the KitKat Irish Schools Championships.
At under-23 level, Paul Hession had an impressive sprint double 10.64 and 21.28 with 400m specialist David McCarthy runner-up in the 200m.
Adrian O'Dwyer, who equalled his personal best of 2.21 for victory at the BUPA Ireland Cork City Sports on Saturday, set a new pb at 2.22 to win the high jump title.
Neither Mary Cullen nor Mark Smith will be travelling to the Euro U23s on the advice of their respective coaches back in the USA where they are on athletics scholarships.
Meanwhile, Geraldine Hendricken is still awaiting confirmation of a date for her independent hearing into the positive drugs test. She said yesterday that while she had been notified of the venue and she had her team in place, she has not yet had confirmation from AAI.
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